McKinsey vs. Booz Allen Hamilton !

A community skirmish reminiscent of the recent "manifestogate" has apparently erupted around the McKinsey & Co. report "Clearing the air on cloud computing". Booz Allen Hamilton Principals Mike Cameron and Rod Fontecilla have taken the report on with their own analysis.

"The McKinsey report, as presented, seeks to be the 'other voice' and offer a contrarian view of cloud computing. The first thing we noted was the statement, on slide 7, that 'Cloud computing can divert IT departments’ attention from technologies that can actually deliver sizable benefits; e.g., aggressive virtualization.' This view seems to be an underlying motif in subsequent discussions, yet it is a premise that is not substantiated."

Read all their comments in the Government Cloud Computing e-zine article.

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Cloud Economic Models

One of the most important drivers of cloud computing in the Federal space is its perceived "compelling" economic value. Some initial insight on the economic argument is now available on the Government Cloud Computing Community website. According to Booz Allen Hamilton, cloud computing changes much of what is now understood about estimating IT costs and the current process for deriving economic benefits. Calling cloud computing "a game changer", the noted management consulting firm says that virtualization, elasticity, and massive scale in the cloud break linear cost relationships and enable infrastructure compression factors from
4:1 to 10:1. This compression of infrastructure results in a reduction in operations and maintenance costs.

This new approach to IT also changes the way capital planning and budgeting are conducted.

" Depending on how cloud computing is adopted, funds can migrate out of capital budgets into O&M budgets, away from the cost of bandwidth in the LAN to the (often higher) cost of bandwidth in the WAN. Funds budgeted for software and desktop support become service fees."
For free access to this report and other resources in the Government Cloud Computing Community wiki, send an email to cloudcomputing@bah.com.

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Cloud Computing Wargames !!

Wikipedia

 “A wargame is a game that represents a military operation.”
 “Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are simulations in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities”

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For ages, simulations and wargames have been used by the military to prepare for eventual future operations. During the Cold War, countless battles between the red and blue forces were set-up, run and reset in preparation for the conflict that thankfully never came. Some contend that these wargames, in fact, were instrumental in preventing a global nuclear holocaust.

As an outgrowth of this apparent success, business war games also came in vogue as a tool to help managers develop and execute business strategies more successfully. In 2005 there was actually an all-day “Battle for Clicks” war game between students from MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Business School. This game, run by Fuld & Co., a Cambridge-based strategic intelligence consulting firm, was the first such competition involving students from these two world-class business schools.

In a unique take on this concept, in 2006, Booz Allen Hamilton took business wargaming one step further. As reported by Government Computing News, the CIO Wargame, a BAH creation, combines the basics of craps and Monopoly to simulate how CIOs, chief architects and other program managers make decisions. The game's stated goal is to bring projects into the operation and maintenance phase and earn as many mission value points as possible, while taking steps to reduce the risk of failures and setbacks. The team with the most points after five rounds won. Like in Monopoly, players had to make strategic investment decisions on which projects and IT capabilities to bet on; like in craps, the roll of the dice often determined how well a project paid off.

I’m happy to report that the CIO Wargame is now being updated! The new Cloud Computing Wargame (CCW) represents a major evolution of the original concept and will be unveiled at FOSE 2009. I am looking forward to working with the BAH Cloud Computing Team on this exciting project.

More than a game, CCW applies simulation techniques to model “Traditional IT” and “Cloud Computing” environments and dynamically maps them against internal, community, and Cloud-based resources. The simulation represent real-life situations facing IT management daily, especially in an environment of rapid technological and mission change against a backdrop of resource variability. The CCW is designed for both mission “owners” and senior IT staff who are engaged in the strategic planning and use of information technologies to meeting organization mission and basic business requirements. The game puts the “players” in real-life situations that you can win … and you can loose.

By actively applying modeling and simulation to IT decision making The Cloud Computing Wargame helps players and organizations understand:

• The inter-relationships between cloud computing technology and mission requirements
• How long-term cloud computing strategy can develop, evolve, and change.
• The interaction between different activities that occur within an IT organization in order to implement and support IT capabilities in different capabilities matrices.
• How different strategies maximize mission impact and value
• How different roles work with business and IT partners throughout the organization and value chain.

You comments and suggestions are welcome. I look forward to seeing you at FOSE for this exciting unveiling.

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Booz|Allen|Hamilton Launches "Government Cloud Computing Community"

As a follow-up to a Washington, DC Executive Summit event, BoozAllenHamilton recently launched an on-line government cloud computing collaboration environment. In an effort to expand the current dialog around government cloud computing, the strategy and technology consulting firm wants to build a community "to exchange ideas, share lessons learned, and generally support the government’s progress in leveraging Cloud Computing." The current topics listed on the site are themselves very interesting and include:

• Cloud Computing Case Studies;
• Cloud Economic Models;
• Enterprise Architecture; and
• Cloud Computing War Game

Welcome aboard BAH! I expect that the mere presence of your site will heighten interest within the Federal marketplace on cloud computing.

For additional information or to join the community, send an email to cloudcomputing@bah.com

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SOA-R Interest Grows

Interest continue to grow in the use of cloud computing concepts for national security missions. Although some view the idea of a "private cloud" as an oxymoron, I personally see no better way of describing what organizations like the DoD and DHS are doing. Maybe "enterprise cloud" would be a better term. What do you think?

In any case the first SOA-R event drew participation from across the industry and Government market space. Presenters included representatives from Google, IBM, Appistry, and Parabon. Attendees included representatives from The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, BAE Systems, Juniper Networks, SAIC, and many more. The event created the venue for an open forum, cross-industry discussion regarding cloud computing, SOA, and adoption and implementation by federal government and Department of Defense users. The focus of the event centered on defining cloud computing and what it means to government customers. The second event will be held on August 13th and will focus on Global Information Access. Speakers from Cisco, Appirio, and Akamai have been confirmed.

Cisco appears to be jumping into cloud computing "big time"!! I understand from some of my discussions that they have focused in on solving all the network security and provisioning issues around the use of virtual machines. This would address many of the concerns agencies now have with cloud computing. They also demonstrate the ability to assure access to the cloud in their video on radio aware routing. You will recognize Appirio's name from one of my earlier posts. Their expertise is in connecting various clouds together. Akamai is also a strong cloud computing proponent. They are arguably one of the largest information providers in the world.

Membership in the SOA-R wiki also continues to grows. Recently added documents include ACT-IAC's "Toward a Service Driven IT Infrastructure" and Gartner's "Cloud Computing Meets Data Center Realities"

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